October 10, 2013

The Poetry of Research - Barbara Jean Hicks

For readers and writers, research can be endlessly seductive. I rediscovered this recently when I finished reading my friend Gwen Dandridge's children's novel The Stone Lions, set in the Alhambra in 14th century Spain.

The research Gwen did for this intriguing story set me off on a path of my own. After a Saturday night in the local coffeeshop with my laptop, here's the poem that describes my latest seduction (complete with links!):

HOT DATE WITH WIKIPEDIA

I gave him a goodnight kiss at Neoplatonism,"a school of mystical philosophybased on the teachings of Plato."(I could have let him take me on toIdealistic Monismor Panentheism--not to be confused with Pantheism--but I didn't want to give him the wrong idea.I'm just not ready.Really. I'm not that kind of girl.)

Anyway, at Neoplatonism he informed meof the Primeval Source of Being(The One and the Infinite),the nous (the perfect image of the One),the world-soul that embraces all soulsand generates and pervades the phenomenal world...I could go on.He DID go on.

What brought us to Neoplatonism in the first placewas dancing at Meister Eckhart,"one of the most influential 13th centuryChristian Neoplatonists in his day,"according to Wiki;a German theologian, philosopher, mysticwhose central theme was "the presence of Godin the individual soul,"who taught the content of the gospels asmetaphorical,and was accused of heresy for it.(There were many places other thanthe kiss at Neoplatonismwe might have gone from here.Wiki let me choose.)

We got to dancing at Meister Eckhartvia dinner at Mysticism,"the pursuit of communion with,identity with, or conscious awareness ofan ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth or Godthrough direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight."A mouthful, even for Wiki.From here we might have gone to Meditationor Contemplative Prayer,but since in Western Christianity(according to Wiki),Mysticism is best knownfrom the writings of Meister Eckhart,and I'd stumbled across his namein O'Donohue's Anam Cara just the week before,I almost shouted:"Oh, let's go dancing there!"

We got to dinner at Mysticismafter the first "Hello" at Sufism,defined by its adherents--so Wiki says--as "Islam's inner and mystical dimension,"though some believe it to be"a perennial philosophy of existencethat predates religion."Either way,we met at Sufism because I asked him to meet me there.I'd been reading a novel about a Sufi mathemagician,a term I thought the author had coineduntil Wiki told me otherwise,and I was intrigued.Just who were these Sufis?